American singer and actress Jennifer Lopez won a cybersquatting case against a US-based website operator who registered two domain names that used her name for commercial profit, WIPO said on Thursday in a UDRP decision.While Lopez is internationally known as an actress, entertainer, performing artist, and film and television producer, it was through a charity Lopez founded in 2008 to promote increased access to healthcare for women and children that the complaint regarding the domain names and was lodged. It was also noted in the complaint that an application to register JENNIFER LOPEZ as a trademark and service mark was made with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on May 21, 1999, for which a registration issued on October 5, 2004.The respondent to the case, when notified of the dispute, offered to sell the domain names to Lopez for $80,000 and later for $45,000. By way of explaining this asking price, the Respondent indicated that the website to which the disputed Domain Names resolve had been developed as a source of income WIPO noted.The panel made a number of findings regarding the registration and use of the domain names including that they were registered and were being used in bad faith, that the registrant has no rights to or legitimate interests in using Lopez’s domain names and that the domain names were identical to the JENNIFER LOPEZ mark.The WIPO case details are available from:
wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/case.jsp?case_id=15019
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